Late on a book delivery, stay-at-home graphic novelist Sam Tucker battles a mid-life crisis. A comedic drama about the relationships between next-door neighbors as they explore creativity, aging, sexuality and friendship.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: The character of Sam in the story is any one of us who wonders if the creative edge that he once took for granted will still serve him. Mary is any one of us who as the dutiful spouse is forced to question whether the trust in her marriage is well founded. Jeff is any young man whose fixation on his past immobilizes him. Sherrie is any woman reveling in the heady powers of her sexuality, but yearning for more substantial relationships. These characters are people that I know.

I’m smack dab in mid-life. Some of my peers are retiring, some “passing by the wayside,” and more than a few are feeling that modern culture has somehow passed them by. And in a large sense it has. But I consider this a great opportunity, because I am a member of one of the greatest underserved film audiences of all time: the aging baby boomers.

This film project began when longtime Atwater Village (LA) resident Ron Judkins approached his across-the-street neighbor, Judy Korin, with a screenplay he had just completed. Without thinking about what precisely this all might entail, Judy said yes. Ron’s wife, Jennifer Young, was enlisted to produce the film alongside Judy, and Finding Neighbors was off and running as a neighborhood affair… by neighbors, about neighbors. Finding Neighbors was truly the work of a village, and for that, the filmmakers are forever grateful.

Screens with the accompanying short:

This Is It

Directed by Alexander EngelUSA / 2013 / 3mins

Is it really a big deal if your house plant doesn’t survive in your first apartment together?